Stainless steel cookware is a great choice for safe cooking. Many kinds of cookware react with the foods, either changing the taste of the food or even releasing harmful materials into the food that can cause imbalances o diseases. Many non-stick coatings like Teflon are safe – but once they get scratched or overhead they can start to leak chemicals in the food that are according to some scientific studies dangerous and possibly carcinogenic.

Right.
Stainless Steel Cookware is “relatively” safe to use; however there are different grades and qualities. This means all “mixes” of stainless steel are not the same. Stainless steel is a mixture of Nickel, Iron, Chromium, Molybdenum and even titanium… to qualify as “stainless” the mix must contain 11% chromium. Stainless steel does not conduct heat evenly so you’ll usually find it mixed with an Aluminum bottom in cheaper cookware like the Mirro Brand and copper in more expensive cookware.

Last edited by 4evermin on Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:20 am; edited 1 time in total

Responding to Hard anodized Calphalon..it doesn't work well for me.
Used it for two years and tried every trick to cook without sticking foods to the bottom of the pans. Barkeepers friend is great, low to medium heat, great..stuck eggs following all the rules, not great. New set of SS on it's way.

I have had my commercial grade hard anodized for over 15 years and never a scratch. I just purchased two pieces this weekend at a Calphalon outlet stoe. New sizes the others should last forever. I have even left a pot on an eye for several hours (by mistake) and burned everything up. The goop came right off. Calphalon even promised to replace the pan if it did not cleanup even though it was my fault. And that was over 10 years ago. Check the web site for places to purchase.

The difference between Calphalon commercial and regular is the nonstick coating. The connercial is just hard anodized aluminum and they say you can use any utensil on it. All the other celphalon pans and most other anodized aluminum pans have an additional nonstick coating. They tell you only to use wood or plastic utensils, no metal, because the nonstick surface will scratch. Check the website, only the commercial pans do not contain a nonstick coating.

I just purchased a 10" and 12" Calphlon set of pans (teflon not AA) and the instructions said specifically to heat the pan to the intended temperature before adding oil, butter, or food. (They also said not to heat the pan to a hotter temperature and then reduce the heat.) I was REALLY surprised at these instructions as I would have thought that the pan should not be heated empty.

In your experience with the different nonstick coatings, is this a standard practice? thanks!

I have tried Calphalon's older commerical all anodized cookware and the newer Calphalon Unison. Both made in the USA. I also have All Clad original LTD made in the USA.
The original Calphalon for me was horrible in that the actual grey exterior anodized surface would scratch- nothing for Bar Keepers Friend to remove, and also discolor very easily.
These on the original commerical grade Calphalon, were genuine scratches where the anodization was actually removed when the pan contacted another utensil. The interior was tricky in that food would react easily as compared to a well seasoned cast iron from Lodge.
The newer generation of Calphanon Unison does have non stick interior, but the anodized exterior still discolors easily and does not come clean. It is grey in color like that of the original.
That said, I have many pieces of the original All Clad LTD where the interior is SS and the anodized exterior is jet black as compared to Calphalon's grey.
When the exterior becomes scratched from contacting another utensil, it remedies easily with Bar Keepers Friend and retains most of it's beauty as when I purchased it.
Anodized aluminum is harder than SS according to All Clad. The possible explanation to the difference between All Clad and Calphalon's anodized aluminum is perhaps in the metals used for the base aluminum.
One item of All Clad that I have tried and do not like is MC2. The aluminum alloy exterior is horrible to keep clean and you cannot use Bar Keepers Friend on it and it scratches are worse than SS.